When to travel to DP's family

[carbolicsoaprocked]

Due to give birth to DC1 in mid June, but DH's family live about 6 hours away by car. DH is close to his family and his parents (and poss some other people) will be travelling to us when DC is born but when do we make the journey to introduce DC to the rest of his family and friends (most importantly his DGPs, who he's very close to)? This is my first so I have no idea when I'll be able to make that trip, but I can't imagine not being able to introduce him/her to my loved ones stright away. Also - is travelling by train easier than car with a newborn for that kind of distance? Thank you!

Thats a long journey but I would say that if you have healed well and you are not doing the driving? Then you can go as soon as you have established feeling (if you are planning to breastfeed) - so about two/three weeks in. The midwives and then health visitors will want to see you in the first two weeks or so. But I would say better to do it when the baby is still tiny as they won't care whether they are in the car or not!

I would say car not train: you can pull over and feed/change and you won't worry about noisy crying.

I have thought about this as my family live 5 hours drive away. My mum still thinks I will be visiting for Christmas with a small baby. I just worry because obviously you can't feed on the go so you would have to stop every time the baby needed a change or a feed which would make the journey a lot longer maybe 2 hours longer.

So anyway it is doable but I can imagine that it would require planning, an early start and plenty of stop points

Until then... Skype! I got my dad onto skype and he loves it! he even sent me an email the other day but the whole message was in the subject bit.... baby steps

Thanks for your replies. I won't be doing the driving, my concern about the car was more about baby being in the car seat for too long at a time, needing a lot of extra stops and adding loads of time to an already long journey. A bit worried about carrying all the baby stuff on and off trains as well as our luggage too though. Totally planning to get PILs onto skype and facebook!

I wouldn't do it until the baby was a couple of months old, tbh. Breastfeeding can be a nightmare at the beginning but does settle down. I think if anyone wants to see the baby before then, they should be the ones to visit.